The North Central Kansas Technical College Board of Trustees held their June meeting this week. Now that the state has approved an overall budget, the college was able to complete their budget work for the coming fiscal year which begins July 1. The board approved their financial report and 2018 budget in action items during the meeting.
Dean of Instructional Services, Corey Isbell, said he attended the KCIA summer retreat in Wichita last month. Topics included remedial education, pooling resources for professional development and a new program approval process. Isbell will sit on a newly formed committee to study the new program approval process for the Kansas Board of Regents.
Isbell has also been conducting presentations on both the Beloit and Hays campus regarding the new concealed carry law which takes effect July 1, and how it impacts the college’s weapons policy. He said they are also working to transition their course and program evaluations in a more automated, faster and user-friendly system for instructors and office personnel.
Dean of Student Services, Angel Prescott, shared upcoming events such as orientation on the Beloit campus July 11 and career and technical education recruiting events she will attend over the next several weeks. Prescott also reported that the college is seeing a significant increase in the number of students taking online courses. In 2016 they had 35 online students, but that number has more than doubled coming into the 2017 school year.
She also presented an three-year enrollment comparison. NCK Tech has accepted 497 students for the coming year and have eight pending enrollees. The student numbers are in line with the past two years within a range of four to nine students.
Dean of Administrative Services, Brandi Zimmer, is having a very busy summer as is typical in her position. She, along with President Burks have been performing a detailed review of insurance coverage. She has also been providing on-site training this week to advance the staff’s knowledge of the student information system to use it most efficiently.
Zimmer has also been working with Judy Heidrick and Marilyn Hughes to digitize older transcripts which were previously in microfilm or paper from. She has also working diligently with President Burks on a program profitability review and the fiscal year 2018 budget. They continue to review employee satisfaction survey results with a drastically increased number of participants.
NCK Tech President Eric Burks reported on the Kansas Legislature who finally passed a budget in the past two weeks. The tax bill, which was also passed, keeps the college flat for the coming fiscal year and will carry forward the four percent cut mandated last year. He actually anticipated more cuts, and the lack of those was a relief. That continued cut is expected to be reduced to thee and a half percent in FY2019.
Burks said, “While the tax bill gives some hope that revenues could outperform projections and a suplus could be generated, the forecast is still not great.”
Burks also announce that he will serve as Vice President for the Kansas Association of Technical Colleges under President Ben Schears of Northwest Kansas Technical College. They held a retreat in Goodland from June 19-20. Discussion topics included program approval, marketing and advocacy, membership development, tuition rates, raises, data collection and more.
Burks also said they collected a security fee in FY2017 in preparation for the ensuing changes with concealed weapons. They have been exploring several options for how best to invest those funds to increase the safety and security of the campus. He said phase one will be to invest in security cameras.
The NCK Tech Board of Trustees are next scheduled to meet on Monday, July 31.
